by Doyle Rice, USA TODAY

by Doyle Rice, USA TODAY

The catastrophic drought in the central USA - which has cost the nation at least $35 billion, according to a report last week - shows no signs of abating as the nation enters the final full month of winter and moves toward spring.

Parts of every state west of the Mississippi River - except for Washington - are enduring drought conditions, according to Thursday's U.S. Drought Monitor, a government website that tracks drought and is updated weekly.

"The drought is firmly entrenched as we roll toward February," climatologist Mark Svoboda of the National Drought Mitigation Center writes in the monitor.

A warm, dry spring seems likely: "Unfortunately for the western Plains and eastern Rockies, I think the drought is going to persist, and it is going to be strong going into the springtime," AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Pastelok says. "In the heart of the drought, it doesn't look good right now."

The Climate Prediction Center's Seasonal Drought Outlook for spring, released in January, also shows that drought is expected to persist or develop through most of the central and southern Plains, the Rockies and the Southwest.

This is bad news for farmers reeling from last year's devastating crop losses, which made up most of the $35 billion in losses last year, based on last week's report from global reinsurance firm Aon Benfield.

"Concerns are water-supply-related, given the depletion of reservoirs, stream and groundwater levels that would continue to be a concern for both the Missouri and Upper Colorado Basins," Svoboda says. "This would hamper irrigation allocation and/or delivery for agriculture, urban and tourism interests this summer if we stay dry."

Svoboda says there is "strong potential" for significant impacts early this summer as the drought continues in the Midwest and central and northern Plains.

The relative lack of winter in back-to-back years will place a much greater emphasis on the need for well-above-normal spring rains if the region is to have any real chance of shaking this drought, Svoboda writes. The area "is now becoming the epicenter of the 2013 drought," he says.

Some small good news is in sight in far northern areas, reports AccuWeather meteorologist Meghan Evans, who says parts of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin may get some beneficial rains this spring.

Regardless of what one famed Pennsylvania groundhog predicts Saturday, meteorologists have already put out their forecast for the next six weeks: Winter will hold on the longest, well into March, across the Northeast and Northwest, Pastelok says.

"I think we could still see some late-season winter storms (in the Northeast)," Pastelok says, adding that February and March are typically when the Northeast sees some of its biggest storms.

As for severe weather, despite a rough final week of January, the number of tornadoes is predicted to be near-normal this spring. "Severe weather season this year will be different from last year," Pastelok says. "I think it is going to be a more typical start. Late March into April we'll get going, especially over the lower Mississippi and Tennessee valleys. But not like last year where we started very early in the season."

Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi are among the states that will be in the battlegrounds for severe storms this spring.